Awaiting Kalki

I dropped by the Krishna temple in Berkeley
Before flying back to Washington D.C. to
Rejoin Occupy DC radical environmentalists

For more intervention in history as the climate
Clock ticks toward the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse
Tipping point of no return and climatologists

Tell me that this is for real no amount of political
Wrangling or carbon trading schemes or swimming in the
River of Denial will hold any importance at all

The pujari attending the altar at Krishna's temple
Informed me that he was patiently awaiting the next
Incarnation of the blue skinned god, who will come

To the earth plane as Kalki, for the end all battle
With demonic forces and this will return the world
To righteousness, just in the nick of time before
Global systemic implosion and ensuing chaos
Make pursuing spiritual goals and following
Dharma almost impossible here, a problem that the
Devic realm must take action to avert immediately

A temple devotee of Radha (Krishna's celestial consort)
Attends temple tulsi plants, and she says that the
Actual time of Kalki's appearance is being debated
By Vedic astrologers, given the gravity of ecological
And social conditions and then a visiting monk from
India looked up from his Sanskrit edition of the
Mahabharata to add that only Krishna knows when his
Next avataric appearance will happen and that his
Vrindavan temple priests recommend preparing now

The pujari returned to lighting sandalwood incense
And offering food to the deity for prasadam at the
Sunday love feast expecting hundreds of bhakti yogis
Who all await Kalki's arrival while they are making
Arrangements to go back to godhead, to Krishna Loka

Chesapeake Earth First! is organizing protest marches
And demonstrations in Washington D.C. right now in
Opposition to the XL Keystone pipeline, a scheme
Fraught with complications and intense conflict
Between tribal groups and mining companies and
Ecologists and construction companies and refineries
And Texas farmers and archconservatives and anarchists

Krishna devotees chant and play mrdanga drums and the
Kirtan teams go out and perform and in India they are
Getting ready to host 70 million Kumbha Mela pilgrims
At the triveni sangam confluence of three rivers at
Allahabad in January engaged in continuous sadhana

For a month, the festival managed by India's army
And even the tantrik mystics wonder what's next

If you were expecting me to give you a comfortable
Answer or some reassuring soothing message, you
Have come to the wrong place, but it's okay, because
We remain friends awaiting divine intervention tonight.

Craig Louis Stehr
29.XI.'12